A Study Of The Interpersonal Meaning In Major Barbara

Halliday classifies language as having three metafunctions, which are the ideational, interpersonal and textual function. The interpersonal function plays the role of setting up and maintaining social relations, and indicates the roles of the participants in communication. The link between language systems and the choice made by the speaker in the exchange enable us to see speakers making meaning about interpersonal relationships:the extent of their intimacy, their level of familiarity with each other and their attitudes and judgments. On the other hand, play-texts are mainly made up of dialogues between characters, through which playwrights shape up the personality of persons and display their relationships in the play. In this respect, it would be awardable to explore a play-text from the perspective of the interpersonal meaning so as to have a revelation of the tenor dimensions between the characters of the play.This thesis analyzes George Bernard Shaw’s play Major Barbara from the perspective of interpersonal meaning. It selects some of the dialogues between the character Lady Britomart and other family member in an attempt to explore how she expresses her different attitudes towards and relationships with different interlocutors through the analysis of her choices of Mood and Modality systems and Vocative.It is found that the character Lady Britomart is peremptory, arbitrary, and high-tempered which is manifested linguistically in her habit of issuing command. But in commanding, she chooses strategies discriminately with different interlocutors. In the conversation with Stephen, she uses a high frequency of imperative clauses, treating him as if he were still a little child. But later in Act Ⅲ, Stephen turns the table which indicates a switch of power between the mother and the son. In contrast, when she is speaking to Barbara, she employs a softer and more indirect tone by using metaphorical realizations of the speech function of command in case her daughter might’make a fuss’. In dealing with Cusins, she uses an unusually formal and complex pattern of language which thus enacts greater distance between her and her son-in-law than with other family members. Her choice of the form of interrogative question to realize the speech function of command largely impairs the impression of the higher power position she has established in dealing with other family members. In the case of Undershaft, Lady Britomart dose not try to avoid the use of straightforward imperative though the two have been long estranged. On the part of Undershaft, as far as the regular familiar affairs are concerned, Undershaft makes himself a submissive role, complying with his wife in a cooperative way. But when it comes to the "matters of principle", he would not make any concession, responding with affirmative and determined statements, with no modality being used. Furthermore, Lady Britomart’s different choices of vocative regarding different family members also reflect her discriminated attitude and affective involvement with them.This thesis mainly concerns the function of the language itself, studying how the clause is structured to enable the expression of interpersonal meaning. It is hoped that it would be of some help to students or anyone who are interested in play-texts analysis or in literary writing.